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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| July 31, 2003 |
Lisbon, Portugal – Peace Ball Soccer Exchange and Visit to the Alto da Cova da Moura Immigrants' Town |
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| The Peace Ball team learning about the lives of immigrants in Lisbon |
Peace Ball embodies Peace Boat's mission of cultural exchange as a way to build peace, using the international language of sport. Study tours are organized in different ports of call around the world where participants meet and learn about local people by playing football matches with them.
The Peace Ball team visited the town of Alto da Cova da Moura on the outskirts of Lisbon, where for the last 23 years African immigrants have lived in a self-constructed neighbourhood largely independent of government legislation and support. Participants learned that the town developed after the Creole-speaking immigrants were unwanted in other parts of Portugal and gathered to create a place where they could have their own community. |
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| Action from a football match with players from Peace Ball and Alto da Cova da Moura |
Thanks to community leaders like Esther Tavash, the 6,000 residents of the town have a support program where they have access to childcare, education and job training. Volunteer Portuguese teachers regularly hold classes at the Alto da Cova da Moura community centre for the Creole-speaking children left out of the mainstream education system. The centre was a project founded by residents and families concerned about their children "wasting their lives," and turning to crime with little hope of finding employment without schooling.
Training programmes are also available for adults to develop cooking and cleaning skills that would qualify them for work outside the community. Vital to this opportunity of employment is the childminding network and kindergarten - funded by an EU scheme - that enables mothers to leave their children in a secure environment while they work. |
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| Replays of the game watched by both players and fans |
Esther led the Peace Ball team to the football ground through the center of the town, explaining that the haphazard construction of the houses was due to the government's neglect of planning and basic services for the residents. Though the town has been there for over 20 years, most houses were only connected to mains electricity supply ten years ago, and because of the poor drainage system, the streets turn to rivers whenever it rains. The community is constantly lobbying the government for better services, but the authorities would rather knock the houses down for private apartments than provide for the local people.
Playing on a football ground in another town - as the government hasn't provided one for Alto da Cova da Moura - the Peace Ball team and the local players scored goals and won friends in the football match exchange. Back at the community centre, both teams wrote messages on pieces of paper to be put inside a glass football that the Peace Ball team are collecting and taking around the world.
A signed football was then presented to the Alto da Cova da Moura players as a gift from Peace Boat. Esther Tavash thanked both the teams for taking part in the exchange, and said that the visit of Peace Boat would help to raise awareness of the town's struggle for support and recognition from the Portuguese government. |
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